Thursday, May 05, 2011

Boehner refuses to honor successful bin Laden mission

The Senate already passed their own resolution but Speaker Boehner won't allow the House to honor the team that took down bin Laden. Boehner cites the new House rules passed along party lines in January that "prohibit the consideration of any measure that “expresses appreciation, commends, congratulates, celebrates, recognizes the accomplishments of, or celebrates the anniversary of, an entity, event, group, individual, institution, team or government program; or acknowledges or recognizes a period of time for such purposes.”

Furthermore, the rule doesn't appear to prohibit the introduction and tabling of resolutions. A look at the list of current House actions lists 251 single resolutions alone. Among them are resolutions "Calling on the State Department to list the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a 'Country of Particular Concern' with respect to religious freedom", expressing condolences with Australia over the deadly floods, recognizing the anniversary of the tragic earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, supporting the contributions of Catholic schools, supporting "Hockey is For Everyone Month" and "Celebrating the life of President Ronald Wilson Reagan on the 100th anniversary of his birth." Granted none of these appear to have come to a vote but they still take up time on the floor to introduce.

Funny, I'm so old I remember when every other phrase out of the GOP's mouths was "honor the troops." Now that these same troops took down US Public Enemy Number One after he was at large for almost ten years, Boehner's response is meh? Don't suppose that has anything to do with the fact there's a Democrat in the Oval Office, does it?